lost tail and flight feathers

[birdguhl]

Hi fellow budgie lovers

Please can I have some advice?

My 6 or 7 month old male (blue) budgie lost a lot of long feathers quite quickly a month or so back and I have been watching him carefully.

The top picture was taken a few months ago - his plumage seemed to be perfect.

The bottom one was taken today. I am worried about French Moult. There was no blood evidence on the lost feathers, but there have been a few shed ones since that didn't look quite normal (one side not properly formed).

He can still fly but it sounds different and he seems to have to work harder at it. Today he didn't get straight to the curtain first time round and had to climb up.

He seems fine otherwise - very lively and vocal in cage and eating normally (although he seems to eat less than his friend).

Should I take him to a vet? This would be traumatic in itself as their cage is too large to move and they are not hand tame.

Thanks very much!

Attachments:

[Hezz]

Hi birdguhl, and welcome to the forum, sorry it had to be with a health issue.

I haven't had the dubious "pleasure" of french moult to deal with, but my understanding was that it was something acquired from "birth". I know there are all different degrees of it, and some birds will be good for a while and then not so good. The only thing I will suggest to aid his feather growth is a protein-rich diet, ie eggs (particularly the yolks) or dried eggfood which you should be able to source from your local pet store or on-line. Feathers take a lot of the bird's resources to replace, especially protein, and if his diet is not quite up to scratch, hopefully this will be all that is required to get his feathers lovely and strong again.

Hopefully someone with more FM experience will be able to help in the diagnosis. A photo from the back so we can see the flight feathers, or lack of, would be good too.

[birdguhl]

Thanks very much, Hezz. I appreciate your quick and helpful reply. Will definitely get the eggfood sorted immediately. I give them germinated seeds as well as dry seed, greens and vegs but not eggfood so far. I'll also try to get a better photo of back of Berry or in flight.

[Hezz]

If you want to try Berry (love the name with a hen's egg, just hard boil it for at least 10 minutes - this is the be sure all bugs are killed - cool, and either mash up or cut up finely. Don't worry with the white so much, we all know it is of little nutritional value, it is the yolk that is the good stuff. Of course one little budgie isn't going to eat a lot in a day, but if you refrigerate it, it will keep and be able to be fed to them for a few days in a row. Something else that some of us do too, is add cod liver oil to their diet. It adds a lot of vitamins that may also be missing. I can't give you dosage rates on that though as I use a different product that I think is not available in the UK (if you are UK based). Something else to think about is a little sunshine most days. It needs to be straight onto them though, not through glass or perspex as UVB rays don't penetrate either of these.

[birdguhl]

Egg will be boiled first thing am! What do you think about dried egg food products?
Sunlight - sadly - will be in short supply in Scotland in over next few months...
Can a special bulb help with this?
I absolutely adore my wee tweety boys and if saying daft affectionate things to them frequently helped them grow feathers, they'd be doing fine!

[barrieshutt]

stress is more often the cause of this problem

[Hezz]

What form of stress can bring this sort of feather loss on, Barrie? Could it simply be the stress of finding himself in a new environment, or would it need to be something more serious? If it is "simply" stress, will this right itself over the next few months, with a protein-rich diet? What is it you would recommend?

[birdguhl]

The feather loss started before this, but I got a bigger cage for them about a month ago. It took them about 10 days to seem to start enjoying it. Before that they were less interactive, more irritable, didn't come out as usual and seemed to forget at times how to get back in even though they had gone in several times successfully. Since then though they have appeared happy and very active in the cage, having very busy spells where they fly, jump and run between the perches and play with the various toys (mainly homemade of raffia, twine, balsa wood etc). Perhaps the adjustment to the new environment has meant that feather regrowth has been slower. It has also got colder so I suppose they are using energy to keep warm. Right now they are pecking away happily at a dried eggfood product and a real egg is cooling in a pan.

[barrieshutt]

i can move a bird from the cage into the aviary and this can stress the odd bird who can then become sick or at the best drop the promaries.

add new companions or any small thing out of the norm and they can become stressed

the bird does not look at all happy in the picture

Plenty of treats , caged alone and a full recovery should happen

[birdguhl]

Thanks, Barrie. Here's hoping. I'll keep you informed of progress.

[barrieshutt]

if a bird did have FM and the feather grew back okay , it then can result in them all dropping again as the feather follicles become weaker after each growth , until finally the don't grow back ...............my monies are on these growing back

[birdguhl]

Hi again, budgie mentors!

The update with Berry is that he has grown a few inches of tail feathers and I think long flight feathers are beginning to emerge. The tail feathers don't look that great - a bit scruffy and with light coloured markings on them. One one side the new flight feathers look as if they are slightly askew. Despite energetic encouragement by his cage-mate, he hasn't been out of his cage for the last few days (but did have a good fly around about 5 days ago). He seems quite happy otherwise - lively, vocal and interactive - certainly showing the raffia who's boss! On the food front, they have had egg food - boiled egg yolk and a Vitacraft eggy stick - and cod liver oil-soaked seeds available (can't be sure how much he has actually eaten, mind you) and an hour of UV light a day. I am cautiously hopeful...

I would normally have a low threshold for consulting a vet with any concerns but getting him there would be likely to be highly traumatic as they are not finger tame and in a big cage. Do you have any tips for such a situation?

Thanks again!

[annieones]

Hi Birdguhl, welcome to the forum. where abouts in scotland are you? I'm in Carluke, lanarkshire. Sorry to hear about little berry, hope he gets well soon.

[Hezz]

I would continue doing what you are doing. If as Barrie said, a bit of stress can cause feather drop, the new feathers may take a moult or two to grow back properly.